Rothman argues against decriminalized prostitution and in favor of the Nordic Model, based on both the ethical dilemmas of non consent, financial inducement, and vulnerability and the lack of evidence that prostitution is harmless.

Three-year research study about the prostitution and trafficking of 105 Native Women in Minnesota. Native women are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation because of a history of brutal colonization, poverty, homelessness, medical problems, a lack of basic services which result in extreme emotional distress. This study quotes Native trafficked women as they explain the conditions […]

A 2-year research study of Nevada legal and illegal prostitution and sex trafficking reveals human rights violations against women in the Nevada legal brothels. This book explains how the multibillion-dollar illegal sex industry in Las Vegas works. Making connections between legal and illegal prostitution, prostitution and sex trafficking, advertising for prostitution, political corruption, pornography, and […]

Interviews of 100 women prostituting in Vancouver, Canada revealed an extremely high prevalence of lifetime violence including childhood sexual assault and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Findings are discussed in terms of the legacy of colonialism, the intrinsically traumatizing nature of prostitution and prostitution’s violations of basic human rights.

This article describes the social invisibility of indoor prostitution, points out the lack of evidence suggesting that indoor prostitution is “safe,” and summarizes the testimony of women who reported violence in strip club prostitution and warnings about violence from groups promoting indoor prostitution.

With examples from a 2003 New Zealand prostitution law, this article discusses the logical inconsistencies in laws sponsoring prostitution and includes evidence for the physical, emotional, and social harms of prostitution. These harms are not decreased by legalization or decriminalization. The article addresses the confusion caused by organizations that oppose trafficking but at the same […]

Researchers interviewed 854 people currently or recently in prostitution in nine countries (Canada, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, turkey, United States, and Zambia), inquiring about current and lifetime history of sexual and physical violence. Findings contradict common myths about prostitution: the assumption that street prostitution of men and boys is different from prostitution of […]

The harm of prostitution is socially invisible, and it is also invisible in the law, in public health, and in psychology. This article addresses origins of this invisibility, how words in current usage promote the invisibility of prostitutionï¿½s harm, and how public health perspectives and psychological theory tend to ignore the harm done by men […]

A review of articles that focus on HIV but simultaneously ignore the massive violence that affects the lives of those in prostitution. The normalization of prostitution in the medical and social sciences literature, the tendency to blame the victim of commercial sexual exploitation, and the ways in which racism and poverty are an inextricable part […]

First Nations women in Canadian prostitution are harmed today because of the legacies of colonialism. “When sexual oppression is intersected by racism, and capitalism, the wounding worsens–this compounded wounding for First Nations women has occurred for over 500 hundred years.”

A description of customers, pimps, and the ways that young people get into prostitution. Prostitution, pornography, and other forms of commercial sex are a multi-billion dollar industry. They enrich a small minority of predators, while the larger community is left to pay for the damage.

Most discussions of the public health risks of prostitution have focused on sexually-transmitted disease. A recent editorial in a major medical journal acknowledged the danger of violence to those prostituted, yet concluded that the overall health risks of street prostitution were minimal. In this paper, we discuss a study of the childhood violence, and violence […]

“Prostitution is in and of itself an abuse of a woman’s body.” “In prostitution, no woman stays whole.” Discussion of the incest that precedes prostitution, her homelessness, her namelessness, and the dominance and cruelty of men toward women in prostitution. Andrea Dworkin, Prostitution and Male Supremacy, 1 Mich. J. Gender & L. 1 (1993). Available […]